The Gay Cousin
by Takara Phoenix
Summary: During Crisis on Infinite Earths, Clark takes a moment to talk to Kate. About Kara. Kate Kane/Kara Danvers


Arrowverse || Kanvers || Arrowverse || The Gay Cousin || Arrowverse || Kanvers || Arrowverse

Title: The Gay Cousin – Clark Kent, Superman and Matchmaker

Fandom: DC Comics / Arrowverse

Disclaimer: All rights concerning the show reserved to Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, all rights for the comics reserved to DC. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.

Warnings: f/f, Crisis on Infinite Earths, pining, fluff, matchmaking Superman

Main Pairing: Kate/Kara

DC Comics Characters: Kara Danvers, Katherine 'Kate' Kane, Clark Kent

Summary: During _Crisis on Infinite Earths_, Clark takes a moment to talk to Kate. About Kara.

**The Gay Cousin**

_Clark Kent, Superman and Matchmaker_

"You know how there is supposedly always a 'gay cousin'?"

Kate blinked a couple of times before looking up. It was exhausting. Everything about this. Being stuck on the WaveRider, with all of these people of whom she knew only very few. So much was happening around her that she genuinely couldn't even begin to grasp.

So if this was Superman's attempt at awkward bonding over her being the gay cousin of Batman, she _may_ have to use the Kryptonite after all. To punch Superman. (But Kara wouldn't like that _so Kate didn't like that_. Also she was honestly probably just too stressed. If she could get some sleep, this would most likely simply prompt her to roll her eyes.)

"More than familiar with the concept. I _am_ the gay cousin. And Bruce's dad-jokes were always lame like that. The kids have perfected the art of ignoring him when he tries to be funny."

The blank face Clark gave her at that was somehow disappointing. Right. Not only did she barely know any of them; they didn't really know her, or her life, either. And _something_ told her that Clark and Bruce would make for an interesting duo, if they ever got to meet.

(For that, she would have to find Bruce. No, no. Priorities. Save the multiverse, then save Alice, _then_ find Bruce. Bruce was a grown man, he'd be fine. Probably.)

"Your family sounds interesting", offered Clark instead, a rather sincere half-smile on his lips. "Kara told me, well, a bit at least. About what you told her."

"...She, uh, talked to you? _About me_?", asked Kate a bit startled, wondering _when_.

"It's been many months. You left... an impression on her", chuckled Clark. "Yeah. She... talks about you."

"Good things, I hope." Kate cleared her throat, hopeful to catch her composure.

(She failed. Composure? After learning that her crush was _talking about her_, with her cousin at that. Alex, maybe, perhaps. But from what Kara had told her, Clark wasn't exactly living in the neighborhood.)

Pulling her legs up against her chest, Kate crossed her arms on top of them. Clark sat down next to her. They were... in some storage room somewhere. The ship was quite big. Kate had kind of intended to flee everyone. Get just a moment's peace to sort her mind - there was screaming about resurrections and the British guy having fucked the devil right now anyway so it wasn't like she was actively missing anything (aside from juicy gossip). It figured that someone with x-ray vision would have an easy time finding her.

(Don't think about Kara's x-ray vision. Or how Kara _used it to count her tattoos_. No, Kate, that road led to too much distraction that she could not use right now. Focus. _Focus_. First save the multiverse, then save Alice, then find Bruce, _then_ maybe explore the implications of Kara checking her out naked last year.)

"Only good things", assured Clark, a tender sparkle in his eyes.

He seemed like a good man. Not just in a throw-away nice thing you say about someone close to someone you like kind of way. Kate felt like this man was good to the core. It seemed to be a... family-trade.

"Sorry, can we circle back to the intro. Did you just come out to me, or where was that going...?"

"I'm the straight cousin", stated Clark, the sparkle turning mischievous.

"Right. Right. How many cousins are there in the House of El?", asked Kate.

"Two. Just me and Kara", replied Clark, patiently waiting for it to sink in.

"...Huh. Is that... something you're authorized to tell? Because you know, this isn't something straights get to broadcast for us, right?"

Clark simply smiled at her and rested a hand on her shoulder. "This. This is what I like about you."

"That I'm willing to throw hands with Superman?", asked Kate a bit confused.

"Yes, essentially. You threatened Lex earlier too. You don't even _know_ Lex Luthor, he doesn't exist on your world, but you saw he made Kara uncomfortable and you were willing to commit murder."

Clark threw his head back a little as he laughed. When he sobered up again, he turned to look at Kate, very sincere and also very serious.

"To answer your question, yes. I am 'authorized' to say that. Kara may not be as... not my words but theirs.. as much of a loud lesbian as Alex, but she very much is an _out _lesbian."

"...Huh", said Kate once more, unsure what other words to apply to _that_.

"She realized, back when she dated my best friend for exactly two days." Clark chuckled and shook his head. "It was... kind of her first attempt at a relationship? All her life, Kara had to hide who she was. Not... just the sexuality. I mean, her alien heritage. She always had to hide and never allowed herself to be close to anyone, not like this. And then she met James and he knew about me, before he even met her. He knew her secret, he was supportive, charming, he was a safe guy to crush on, but when things got more serious, she realized... that wasn't what she wanted from a man."

"That's how it goes sometimes."

"Then she met this... _woman_." And wow. Just judging by the way he said that, there was a lot to unpack there. "It was an instant crush. They were never more than friends... best friends... and things have turned... ugly recently. She has been so... beaten down and... sad lately, so... _hopeless_."

Kate captured her lips between her teeth, chewing a little to keep from commenting. She had noticed that. The paragon of hope, but when they had gathered here first, she had looked so much more brought down than when they had met last year. It had gotten worse when she and Alex regrouped and talked among themselves earlier. Kate didn't want to pry, but the genuine anguish on Kara's face and the way Clark now spoke made her assume it was about 'this woman', whoever she was. Had she... not made the evacuation, perhaps...?

"Ever since you arrived here, I've _seen_ the hope grow in her. She is walking more upright, carrying herself with more certainty. You have given her back her hope, something that pained me to see her lose, something I didn't know how to help her get back."

"Yeah... Yeah, well, she helped me find my courage again", offered Kate reluctantly.

"This is what real partners do for each other", stated Clark as he slowly got up again. "It's what Diana and I give each other. Honesty, trust, courage, hope, love, humanity, honor, destiny."

"Now you're just listing paragons", snorted Kate, shaking her head.

"Because they're... surprisingly good fits. All of them are elements of what makes a partnership of any kind - romantic, familiar or platonic - work. _Really_ work. If trust is broken, if courage fails and you feel hopeless, if you can't treat each other with a baseline level of humanity, if there is no honor to the acts you perform, if you can't be honest with each other... then maybe it's not destiny for you to be together. If they do, however, if you bring each other up, build each other up when you feel down and hopeless, then what you have... is special. Very special. And it would be incredibly foolish to let it pass you."

"Clark-", started Kate confused as he was nearly out of the storage room.

"I gotta go. Diana put me on babysitting duty while she's off being the paragon of truth", chuckled Clark. "Think about what I said, Kate."

Kate simply nodded and looked after him. Huh. She now _really_ understood why a woman like Wonder Woman would pick him. Well, she still didn't understand why anyone would pick a man, but the baseline principle. If a man, he seemed to be a very good one. He took it with incredible dignity, that his cousin was the paragon representing their house - Kate had heard about that, that the symbol on the Supers' chest was not just their family crest but the symbol of hope from their home-planet. And as his wife stepped up as the paragon of truth, he, a literal Superman, took their young infant son and stepped back, to fully support her.

"Kate? Kate. There you are. Was... Clark just here?"

"Yeah. We... talked", replied Kate, smiling as he saw Kara tilt her head in that endearing confused-puppy-manner of hers.

"Huh." Somehow, that alone already sounded so much more peppy and upbeat when it came from Kara and not from Kate and it too made Kate smile.

(All this smiling was going to ruin her Bat-reputation. What was this literal ray of sunshine doing to her...?)

"He... mentioned... a friend of yours. Woman friend of yours." She winced. When had she gotten this bad at _words_? "It made me wonder, when you talked to Alex earlier..."

"...Oh. Yeah. Lena... We..." Kara adjusted her glasses and looked anywhere but at Kate. "We had a bad... fall-out. I had hoped, since she... helped, with the evacuation, that maybe... I don't know, that maybe the end of the universe would put things into perspective for her. Guess... not."

"She sounds like an idiot."

Kara choked on air and stared at her wide-eyed. "She's a literal genius."

"I don't care", shrugged Kate unimpressed. "If she can't even forgive _whatever_ happened between the two of you when facing the literal end of the world... Sounds like an idiot _to me_."

At that, Kara smiled. Not in a mean way like she was now fully agreeing with Kate, but in that small, soft way as though it did her good to hear someone side with her. Side with her a hundred percent, no backstory needed.

"He also said you're a lesbian", offered Kate after a beat.

"Oh. Yeah. I... You _didn't_ know?", asked Kara surprised, staring at her.

"...What. _How_? You're not... really waving a rainbow-flag around."

"I... literally complimented your _very intimate_ tattoos the first day we met. I could not have flirted with you any more obviously if I tried!", exclaimed Kara exasperated, throwing her hands in the air. "Wait so you didn't politely reject me by ignoring it? You actually didn't notice that I'm really very gay? Really?"

"...You called Luke cute earlier", mumbled Kate like that was a defense in any way.

"I'm a lesbian, I'm _not blind_, Kate!", groaned Kara and shook her head. "By Rao, and this entire time I thought maybe you were like... seeing someone, or hung up on someone, or something!"

"No. Nope, there is absolutely no one. I mean, there was someone and when we reunited, I... kind of thought, maybe. But she's happily married. To a man. And I'm not the type to chase a married woman. I've... gotten over that months ago. There... is this... blonde... I've been kind of... hung up on though..."

Kate licked her lips, deliberately slow, as she stared at Kara. The grin on Kara's lips was small but so bright, like she was trying to contain all the excitement in her. She was beautiful. So beautiful, Kate couldn't help but reach out to grasp her by the neck and slowly bull her in. This super girl would not be moved if she didn't want to and oh did she want to, eagerly leaning in until their lips met.

Kara gasped into the kiss while wrapping her arms around Kate's neck, leaning in heavier until they both collapsed onto the ground, Kara on top of Kate and kissing her like their lives depended on it. Kate's hands came to rest on Kara's hips, holding her close, or maybe holding herself so she wouldn't slip from this reality.

"Kara? Kate? Where-Oh, seriously. One mission I'm going without the Legends and still I have to deal with _hormonal teenagers_ making out on my ship!"

The two of them bolted apart wide-eyed and turned toward Sara Lance, who simply rolled her eyes at them. "Yes, yes, I'm all happy for the two of you, but delay the celebration until _after_ we found all seven paragons?" She clapped twice loudly and turned around, motioning for them to follow. "Let's go, lesbians, let's go."

Flustered, Kara and Kate exchanged a look before both of them broke into laughter. At the ridiculousness of absolutely everything about this situation and to express just how incredibly _happy_ both of them were right then. Kate felt, in that moment, as though she could single-handedly take care of this crisis. Though, she mused as she took Kara's hand, she could use some help.

_~*~ The End ~*~_

* * *

_Author's note: 1.) I AM VERY INVESTED IN THIS SHIP I LOVE IT A LOT. 2.) Wonder Woman should have been the paragon of truth, like, seriously. 3.) I will ALWAYS retcon anything featuring Clark into SuperWonder because it's one of my total OTPs in DC. 4.) CLARK IS A GOOD COUSIN AND I LOVE HIM. 5.) Come visit me on tumblr at **takaraphoenix** to yell about lovely gay DC ladies and other stuff!_


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